Final Bond Payment

I still remember the amount of relief, pride, and satisfaction when I made the last payment on my first car and received a clear title many years ago. Having ownership and taking care of our financial obligations is something that has helped to make our country expand our horizons and prosper. Recently West Valley City made final bond payments on the money borrowed to purchase and construct West Ridge Golf Course and make improvements to City Hall. The relief of this development will help to strengthen the foundation of the City and allow us turn our focus to other areas of debt relief and Citywide progress. Posted below here is the official statement issued by West Valley City on the matter:

West Valley City – The liability portfolio of Utah’s second largest city no longer includes West Ridge Golf Course or West Valley City Hall, as West Valley City made the final bond payments on the two facilities in January 2010. The final payment on the $15 million bond means the City can now redirect the bond payment funds to additional liabilities, including StoneBridge Golf Club.

“It’s always a good thing when you can eliminate debt,” says Director of Finance James Welch. “The payoff of this bond not only clears the debt on West Ridge Golf Course, but on City Hall as well.”

 The 18-hole West Ridge Golf Course was built by West Valley City in 1990. Funds from the $15 million bond were used to purchase land and build the golf course, as well as to provide improvements to West Valley City Hall.
 StoneBridge Golf Club, a 27-hole golf course, was purchase in 2001 for approximately $13 million; the bond is expected to be paid off in 2021.

West Valley City Debt

Today I have decided to tackle a difficult topic within this blog and hopefully shed some light on the City's current situation. Recent hardships during these tough economic times have in many ways been linked to individuals, institutions, and governments borrowing more money than they can afford. Therefore I have compiled some select City financial data to help assess the overall economic health of West Valley City and try to put it into perspective. Also as my role as Councilman and chairman of the West Valley City audit committee I feel that it is important to crunch through these numbers occasionally in order to be a wise steward of public dollars.

The appraised market value of West Valley City is pushing up close to ten billion dollars or about $77,000 of City infrastructure per resident. Individual property taxes have a rate of approximately 1.398% which over the years has helped in building and servicing the City. As a City we have an operating budget of around 67 million dollars. During the good years the City has been able to put some funds in a reserve account that currently has a balance just over 7 million dollars or 10.59% of the operating revenue. Currently I feel that this is an excellent amount of reserve funds, but unfortunately those funds will probably be called upon during the next couple of years to fill some holes within the budget due to lagging sales tax revenues. The goal would be to replenish these funds as soon as tax revenue generators like the renovated Valley Fair Mall start to bring in more shoppers and tax revenue and as the overall economy improves.

The total debt for West Valley City continues on a downward trend and is just over 109 million dollars. The annual debt service payments on the outstanding debt is around 8 millions dollars which is approximately 8% of the operating expenditures. Each resident's share of this calculated debt would be about $875 per person or about 5% of the average per capita income. This number might seem a little bit high until you remember that Utah has the lowest per capita income in the nation based on the fact that in comparison we have many more children in our population.

These relative strength of these numbers has helped the City achieve unusually high credit ratings which has saved us money in the long run. Having this information in mind is helpful in setting the priorities and goals of the City. We should strive to make our budgets lean and reduce debt while continuing the high levels of service and opportunities within West Valley City.

I hope that these facts and figures are insightful. As always please feel free to contact me with any comments, questions, or concerns: corey@coreyrushton.com

Busy Busy Week

There have been many interesting and important things happen this past week in conjunction with my West Valley City duties. In order to keep this post manageable in length I will resort to using a 'Top Seven' list to highlight these events. As always please feel free to contact me if you are interested in receiving more information on any of the following. My email address is simply corey@coreyrushton.com. Here is the list in no particular order:

1. Municipal Primary Election Day. Congratulations to all those candidates that advanced to the General Election with gratitude to the rest of the candidates that worked so hard with the best interest of our City at heart. I had the pleasure of conducting the Opening Ceremony at City Council meeting last night, and I chose to share a favorite poem of mine titled "The Poor Voter on Election Day" by John Whittier. If the poet's name sounds familiar it is because the first Hunter area school was named after him.
2. Energy Efficiency Block Grant. The City received over 1.1 million dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to upgrade and convert some city lights, traffic signals, and HVAC to more modern and energy efficient models.
3. Bond Closing. As Chairman of the City's Redevelopment agency I spent an afternoon signing dozens of documents in sextuplet to pre-close on a 9 million dollar bond that will be used to kick start the financing within the City Center Valley Fair Mall redevelopment. I was excited about the extremely good rates that we received on the bonds due to realtionship between the current bond market and West Valley City's strong financial condition.
4. Jordan River Canoe Trip. I spent Saturday morning with a couple of elected officials and City staff canoeing down the West Valley City section of the Jordan River. While on this trip we experienced "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" aspects of the current state of the Jordan River. The knowledge gained on this trip will be very valuable in my role as City representative and co-chair of the Blueprint Jordan River Committee as well as the developments planned along the river at the UCCC.
5. Street Light Purchase. After years of negotiation the City has reached an agreement with Rocky Mountain Power to purchase their street light system within the City. As owners of the street light system we will now be able to save approximately $500,000 annually as we will be on a cheaper pay schedule.
6. Partnership with Salt Lake City to combat crime. With an inter-local agreement Utah's two largest cities have partnered in a cooperative effort to fight problems associated with drugs, prostitution, and gangs. Working cooperatively with Salt Lake City and partially financed by a COPS Methamphetamine Grant we anticipate that the shared information and resources will help put an end to much of these types of illegal activity instead of just scaring criminals back and forth between cities.
7. New Animal Shelter Grand Opening. This certainly falls under the last but not least category as the new facility on 4400 West and 3500 South is a modern and beautiful state of the art facility, that is dedicated to Community Preservation and Animal Service efforts. I was also pleased to see so many animal lovers, workers, and advocates at the Grand Opening.

West Valley City Bond Ratings

Recently a small delegation representing West Valley City traveled to San Francisco to present the City's finances to firms associated with municipal bonds and the credit market. The good news and forecasts that came from these meetings resulted in a strong financial outlook for the City amidst of the current economic slowdown. I currently serve as a City Council representative on the West Valley Audit committee and after recently reviewing in detail the corresponding citywide audit, I remain confident that we continue to weather the current economic slide and emerge from the recession and leaner and more efficient City. Also with this good credit rating news we will be able to continue to reduce City debt and save money on financing costs of City facilities and infrastructure. With this we will also need to be prepared to capture new jobs, development, and businesses opportunities on the next wave when local and national economies begin to expand.

According to Business Wire, Fitch Ratings affirms West Valley City's Bonds as follows:

Sales Tax Revenue: 'AA-' Stable Outlook

Lease Revenue Bonds: 'A+' & 'A' Stable Outlook

You can read the full article at http://www.businesswire.com/